It’s one thing to graduate from college. Then another thing to graduate with an advanced degree in anything. The long hours, the curriculum, the research, all the time spent including the late night hours that come with it, and of course, then there’s the cost.
So when a person is able to graduate with an advanced degree like an MBA or a law degree, it’s something to celebrate. But this graduation season, one man did it twice…on the same day!
Darrell Landon Kelly, 24, received his law school degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law on Saturday, May 19th in Ohio and rushed to his graduation ceremony in Kentucky for Xavier University’s Williams College of Business to get his Master of Business Administration, according to Cincinnati’s WCPO 9.
“I was born to five generations of love, and I passed that on to them,” Lisa Kelly said of her son. “If he’s tall, it’s because he’s standing on tall shoulders. He’s big because of the village, because of the friendships. He grew up with love.”
Definitely, excellence runs in their blood. His mother and his aunts all went to college and two of them have master’s degrees. His grandmother who went back to college earned her bachelor’s degree from Xavier at the age of 73.
Kelly initially heard of a program that would allow him to obtain two degrees at Howard. But he decided to go back to Cincinnati to save money where he attended the University of Cincinnati and Xavier.
Six months before the graduation, he knew that both programs would have the graduation ceremonies on the same day. But he is very much used to juggling multiple tasks. In fact, he had two part-time jobs before, one as a legal extern at Baker & Hostetler LLP and another as a graduate assistant at Xavier.
Lisa Kelly raised Darrell and his sister Jazmoné as a single mother, something that he appreciates.
“It’s time for me to stand and leave the nest,” he said. “She’s instilled me with all these tools and has guided me for so long.”
Lisa Kelly has said her son was very smart at a young age. He graduated from high school at 16 in 2010.
“He was a smart little dude,” life-long friend Richard Layson said. “Him and his sister, Jaz, from the time they were six, they knew the periodic table.”
Kelly received a degree from Howard University in 2014. It was at Howard that he heard of a program where students…
… can get their MBA and law degree concurrently, which was something that interested him.
Lisa spoke into her children at an early age and as often as she could.
“You are not necessarily special or exceptional,” she told her children. “You are a king. You are a queen. You’re continuing the tradition. There’s nothing you can’t do.”
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